The Pawcurean Presents: Turbacon

As we’re winging our way to the Thanksgiving holiday (get it? winging?) I decided to dedicate some thought to what I would include on the holiday menu for the pets.

It’s only fair, right? I’m going to spend all of Thursday and most of the week leading up to it in the kitchen preparing a feast the likes of which this kitchen sees only once a year, and the most the pets can usually look forward to is a sliver of turkey expertly slid under the table by Grandma (then Grandpa, then the other set of grandparents, then the kids…OK, Thanksgiving really isn’t all that bad for them.)

But in the spirit of true pawcureanism, I figured if I’m going to spend an hour perfecting a cranberry sauce no one wants to eat, the least I can do is come up with something good for the dogs.

I thought about making some sort of actual turducken derivative, but since I’d never consider making a real one anyway I stuck with something we’d actually give to the dogs. The idea was to make something impressive enough to silence even the most critical twice removed uncle in the room, but still use stuff you’re going to have on hand anyway. So without further ado, I present:

What’s eating you? (I’m full of ’em today.)

Step One:

Prepare your mise en place. In this case, I took the usual Thanksgiving suspects: turkey, sweet potato, a carrot, some heels of bread used for stuffing, some bacon for garnish, some chicken jerky, and Honest Kitchen Preference for a little green.

Step two:

Assemble the layers using the technique described in the chicken parfait. I layered as follows: turkey, Preference, turkey, sweet potato, Preference, bread.

Step Three:

Decorate! I used sweet potato slices for wings, some chicken jerky treats for the head, bacon for the tail, and a carrot for the beak. I have some peanut butter Kong filling that I used to glue on the beak and make eyes. Easy peasy.

Eat your heart out, Madden.

Step Four:

Remove bacon. (Since bacon is a high fat food and a common precursor to Thanksgiving pancreatitis, I reserve this one as ‘garnish only.’) Carve up parfait (best done with a spoon) to the dogs who have suddenly learned the meaning of Thanksgiving gratefulness.

Handsome! I wouldn’t mind that for myself (except I would want the bacon). Just out of curiosity, how do you get your sweet potato ‘wings’ to stand up so nicely. After cooking, mine are too soft to stand upright.